Ukrainian hackers affiliated with the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense conducted a series of large-scale cyberattacks targeting the critical infrastructure of the Russian Federation. The most severe blow struck one of Siberia’s largest internet providers—Orion Telecom—leaving a significant part of the region without internet access, reports Baltimore Chronicle with reference to Dialog.UA.
The Ukrainian hacker group BO Team claimed responsibility for the attack. According to their statement, a powerful DDoS assault was carried out on Orion Telecom’s systems during the night of June 12. The company’s official Telegram channel confirmed that the servers were overloaded with a high volume of requests, causing internet outages for subscribers. BO Team asserted that the damage was far more extensive: 497 core switches, 28,259 access switches were disabled, and data on 370 servers was completely wiped.
Hackers also published screenshots showing root access to the provider’s servers and internal data, claiming to have exfiltrated the entire customer database. According to RBC-Ukraine, citing sources within Ukrainian intelligence, the cyberattack cut off communications even in one of Russia’s closed cities involved in uranium extraction.
Between June 10 and 12, GUR specialists carried out additional attacks targeting Russia’s IT infrastructure. Services of the Federal Tax Service, the Federal Customs Service, as well as the website and mobile app of Russian Railways (RZD) were affected. The Russian Federal Customs Service confirmed the incident, stating that “information exchange with foreign economic activity operators was hindered.”
Key systems related to Russia’s digital document management—including “Kontur,” “Chestny Znak,” and “GosKlyuch”—also came under attack. Representatives from Russian Railways confirmed that due to the DDoS attack, users were unable to purchase tickets online for an entire day. Complaints were recorded from Saint Petersburg, Tver, and Sverdlovsk regions. The company advised customers to purchase tickets at physical ticket offices.
Earlier we wrote that GRU hackers target aid logistics to Ukraine in 13 countries.